Content designers can utilize vector drawing to create content such as images. Often, aspects of the resulting images are symmetrical in nature; however, images can also contain asymmetrical portions. For example, content depicting an image of an arrow or an image of a microphone might be bilaterally symmetrical, whereas an image of a house might be predominantly symmetrical, excluding, for example, a chimney.
As content designers generally desire to create symmetrical or partially symmetrical images, it is helpful to have drawing tools that aid in the creation of symmetrical or partially symmetrical images. Under the current state of the art, however, a content designer is limited in the methods available for easily creating symmetrical designs. One method available requires a content designer to draw part of an image and then copy and reflect that part of the image around a specified axis. However, this approach requires the content designer to select a specific axis of symmetry after drawing only a portion of the image, and it prevents the content designer from visualizing the overall shape of an image while it is being created. Another method available is activating a mode in which the content designer specifies an axis of symmetry and then draws part of an image while another part of the image is automatically mirrored across the axis of symmetry. Both of these methods, however, require a content designer to specifically and precisely specify an axis of symmetry in an exact location, either before or after drawing. In addition, only one or two axes of symmetry are used at a time, and the symmetry is assumed to apply to the design as a whole. Because images are not always fully symmetrical, these methods can require multiple interactions by a content designer to achieve the desired result, which is time consuming and interrupts the content designer's workflow.